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He will earn $64 million through the deal he signed yesterday. From AP-

Goalie Roberto Luongo signed a 12-year contract extension with the Vancouver Canucks that will carry him through the 2021-2022 season.

The deal is worth $64 million, with an average salary cap hit of $5.33 million, ESPN.com’s Pierre LeBrun reported. That is less than the $6.75 million salary cap average of his current four-year, $27 million deal that expires at the end of the upcoming season.

The new deal will pay Luongo $10 million in 2010-11 and about $6.7 million from 2012-13 through 2017-18; about $3.3 million in 2018-19; and about $1.6 million in 2019-20 before declining to $1 million for the final two seasons.

“I want to win the Stanley Cup,” Luongo said on a conference call. “That’s why I play. We had to do something that made sense for both me and the team, and I think that’s what we accomplished by doing a deal where the money is a bit more front-loaded.”

Luongo’s deal includes a no-trade clause.

Luongo is a great goalie. He spent much of the 2008-09 injured but when healthy again Luongo was one of the best goalies in the league coming down the stretch. The Florida Panthers were idiots when they traded Luongo away in 2006.

Anyone notice something peculiar about the deal? I will let ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun fill you in-

Luongo will turn 43 on April 4, 2022, enjoying the final days of the 12-year contract extension.

Why would a NHL team sign a player to that age? Apparently this is the new gimmick some teams are using to get around the league’s salary cap.

I sincerely wish Luongo good luck in bringing a Stanley Cup championship to Vancouver. He is one of my favorite NHL players.

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